Prison of the Timelords
by LosGatos
Summary: "The time lock has been broken. The timelords have called you to Gallifrey to answer for your crimes. This is your prison." Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1: Paradox and Prison

"Time Lords." Muttered the Doctor under his breath, despite there being nobody around to hear him. "You've told me that one before, Missy." The TARDIS was a strange object, made all the more frightening by the size of the damned thing. Sometimes you could swear there was someone right behind you, creeping up on you, and then when you turned around….

"Nothing. Nothing could ever make me believe the things you come out with." The Doctor was starting to worry. It wasn't just his ship, everything was acting up. The screwdriver, the time vortex… Things were going very wrong, very fast. And yet he was just so sick of it all. He was sick of being a hero, sick of being the good man going to war over and over again. Something had to give.

"Once more unto the breach, I suppose." He set the TARDIS to latch onto whatever was creating so many disturbances. It can't be a single event; it must be a person, a fixed point in time. Whatever it was, he was sure to find out. As his ship flew through the vortex for the seven millionth time, he held on and sighed. Death was imminent. He had two incarnations left, maybe it was time to…. No. He was the last. He had made sure of that himself. He needed to hold on to what he had. The TARDIS landed smoothly. The Doctor opened the door and stepped out, only to be horrified at what he saw.

Sand. Sand everywhere. Cliffs. Strong winds. An alien chill in the air. "No." Pleaded the old man. "Not here, anywhere but here. Not like this…" Bad Wolf Bay, Norway. The Doctor stopped his pleading and looked up to the sky. He laughed, and laughed. It was all so stupid. Stupid TARDIS. Stupid Doctor. Stupid sentiment. He became so absorbed in his own laughter he never noticed the young man striding across the sand towards him.

"God gives life, and takes it away," Said the man, drawing the doctor's attention. "Or was that just your excuse?" The Doctor turned to face him. The man was tall and young looking, but somehow… old at the same time. "Who are you?" The Doctor asked flippantly. "I am Agent Marcus." The man replied flatly. "You are the Other, One of the creators of the timelords, you stand accused of treason against Gallifrey and her people, blah blah blah, how do you plead?"

The Doctor was shocked. "This is some sort of joke." He said, more hoping than knowing. "None of this is really happening and I'm losing my mind." Agent Marcus scowled. "I haven't got all day, just give me an answer." He said. The Doctor took a minute to regain his composure and dust himself off. He figured if he was losing his mind, he might as well go along with it. "Not guilty. Now tell me who you are and what's happening."

The Agent took a deep breath. "I am Marcus, an agent for the timelords. After several hundred years of trying, the time lock has been broken, and its ripples are causing faults throughout the universe, such as you might have experienced with the TARDIS and your sonic device. The timelords have called you here to Gallifrey to answer for your crimes. This is your prison." The Doctor absorbed all of this with a heavy expression on his face, and he was starting to believe it might all be real. Sod that, it was real. "Okay," He answered calmly. "So why are we in Bad Wolf Bay?" Marcus was quick to reply.

"The timelords ordered a cell built specifically for you. Built from your personal hell, your deepest regret. Your craft has been disabled, so it's no use trying to escape, though if you want to have a go at it, I won't stop you." This remark, along with the overly casual tone of the Agent's speech, told The Doctor what he suspected. "You're not really into this, are you?" He asked. Agent Marcus laughed. "You've caught me," He said with a smile on his face. "I don't care about it, I'm no timelord. I'm just a hired gun, so it's not as if the council can't replace me. Plus, I don't really care much for all of the paradoxes and such breaking the time lock caused. So in short, Other, You're right. I don't care. But I am, however, your prosecutor. And as your prosecutor, I have to read all of this boring nonsense to you," He said, pulling a file folder out from within his coat which reached the ground. "Charges and such." The doctor sat on the sand, leaning against the now-useless TARDIS. The Agent began reading his near endless list of crimes. The casualties of the time war, everyone killed in bloody battle after bloody battle. The pain weighed heavy on the old man's mind. But as he listened to the endless torture, He began to formulate a plan to escape….


	2. Chapter 2: Willpower and Strength

The Agent sat down. "And that's all of the people you killed." He quipped.

The Doctor held his head in his hands. He was sickened. Every time he let someone die, every sin he'd ever committed, someone knew. And someone was having it read out to him. He stood up.

"Agent Marcus," He said, sounding dejected. "You're my executioner, but tell me. Who's my judge? My jury? Just tell me."

Marcus sighed. "I suppose I'd better tell you. It was Rassilon. All of it. Always him. The rest of the time lords have been promised a fair trial, but I'll tell you now, you aren't getting one. You're staying in this cell until you die. He seemed to think it was crueller than killing you. I'll be here, most of the time. Although if you do successfully escape, I'll be condemned to wander the time vortex, so swings and roundabouts, eh?"

The Doctor shook his head. "Stupid, vindictive Rassilon," He moaned. "Always letting his feelings get in the way. Or is that me? Look, Mister Agent, tell me how to escape, Because god knows how long it'll be before the Paradoxes mess everything up and the time lords start to do as they see fit. Then everything I've ever done will all have been for nothing, The Master, River, The Daleks, The Silence, The Angels, do I really need to go on?"

Marcus chuckled. "I suppose you don't, I've got it all on file. I can be very resourceful when the timelords need me to be." The Doctor groaned. "So, that's how you found out I was the Other, then?" He said, expecting to be right.

The Agent shook his head. "Everyone knows you're the Other. They found one of your artefacts in the Time Vortex. Surely you remember it, hm? The one that held the Time Lock in place?" Shock was rarely an expression that came across the face of the doctor, but it had become more common lately. Now the Doctor was more shocked than ever. "Okay," He gasped. "Don't panic. Rassilon has the Right Arm of the Other. This is bad. This is very, very bad. Catastrophic." His breathing became heavy. He started to shake. He grabbed Agent Marcus by the shoulders. "How do I get out?!" He yelled furiously.

Agent Marcus calmly lifted The Doctor's hands off of him. "Bad Wolf Bay," He explained, "Is your prison. It is your personal hell. Something you never let go of." The Doctor shook his head and laughed hysterically. "I gave up on all of that years and years ago. It's ancient history, I moved on and I've let it go." He said insistently.

"No!" Shouted The Agent. "You never let it go, you only forgot! Drowned it in a sack and pushed it to the back of your mind where no one else could find it! Well I tell you this now, Doctor. If you don't leave it all behind now, you'll be carrying that baggage and you'll never ever escape from here. Is that clear?"

Once again, The Doctor sat against the TARDIS. Suddenly, the wind became a lot faster. "You mean all I have to do…" He began. "…If I want to escape…" The cliffs started to blur and melt into the ground. "I have to, what's the word…" The Ocean disappeared and gave way to yellow sand. The sky lost its shade of dark gray and became blue. The sun rose in an instant.

"Forget."

Bad Wolf Bay. Gone, disappeared in an instant by willpower alone. Agent Marcus smiled at the Doctor. "Well done, Doctor. You've made it out, into Har-Koth and the desert of repentance, and now they come for us." The Doctor smiled his normal smile. "Then let them come. How much time have we got?" He asked, as confident as he always was. The Agent reached into his jacket and began pulling out an impossibly long rope. The Doctor laughed. "What am I supposed to hang myself from?"

Marcus sighed. "Don't make me laugh, Prisoner. We've got an hour at most before the council of Gallifrey notice there's something wrong. Tie this around your spacecraft because you're going to pull it. It won't move under its own power, but I know of a hole in the Time Vortex we can push it into, give it a Jumpstart. If we hurry, we can make it without Rassilon ever noticing."

The Doctor listened intently, but had other priorities. "Your jacket…" He noted, pointing at the Agent. "How does it hold so much?"

Marcus smiled. "Bigger on the inside."


	3. Chapter 3: Lord President and Fall

"So, tell me!" Shouted the doctor, as he pulled the TARDIS through the desert which had previously been his prison. "How does your jacket contain another dimension inside?"

The Agent was walking alongside him, noting that a sandstorm would soon be coming. They had been walking for about fifty minutes now without stopping, and like hell were they going to stop now. "It's a bit complicated, but it's the same as your tardis, just on a much smaller scale. Part of my body's in two dimensions at once, so it does tend to get a little screwed sometimes."

The doctor walked for a bit longer. He was starting to tire out after all this physical stress. "What I mean is, does it have a catchy name?" He asked. The Agent considered for a bit. "I've never thought about it," He answered. The wind was beginning to pick up. "TARDIC works. Time And Relative Dimension In Coat." The Doctor chuckled at this, when all of a sudden a thought occurred to him. He stopped dragging.

Agent Marcus noticed. "What are you doing? We're nearly there, and the council is going to find us missing any second now! Keep dragging!" The Doctor did not keep dragging. "_Agent _Marcus, was it?" He asked. Marcus nodded. "Agent of whom?" The Agent's face tensed up, as though something very uncomfortable had just come to mind. "You know very well who it is I work for." With this, the doctor resumed his march.

"So why are you helping me, Time Agent Marcus Jakuvar?"

It was Marcus' turn to stop this time. "How do you know my name, Doctor?" The Doctor smirked. The sandstorm was visible on the horizon. "I know everything about you," He said. "Tell me. Is it true you can survive in the time vortex?"

The Agent considered for a moment, but before he could answer, a strange interference appeared before the two of them, almost like electricity, but it seemed more powerful. Marcus smirked. "I dearly hope so," He answered, almost in desperation. "Because I'll have to do just that." The electricity grew louder, and larger. It grew into a vortex like shape, before disappearing. A figure emerged in its place.

"Rassilon."

The old man was beaming, with more than a hint of menace showing on his face. "Old doctor," He said, as if greeting an old friend. "It has been far too long. I only wish…" He trailed off, as he walked towards him, "It could have been under better circumstances."

The president's fist wasn't something the doctor had ever felt before. The blow came almost from nowhere, striking the doctor hard in the chest, hard enough to stop one of his hearts. The Doctor had no desire to feel the president's fist again. Running on one heart. Humans always amazed him. "You betrayed us, Doctor!" Rassilon yelled in blind fury. "All of us! Your own people!" The Doctor had collapsed and was on the ground, trying to get back on his feet.

"I… I did…" The Doctor wheezed, "What I had to do. You'll never understand. None of you, not ever. I couldn't save you, so this was the most humane thing to do." He managed to get blood pumping in his crippled heart again. "The Master, the Daleks…. Don't you see? I saved you, I saved you from yourselves! You should honour me. And yet, here you are. Swanning around while the paradoxes caused by your little rebellion fester across the universe… You don't get it! I brought justice! I'm RIGHTEOUS!"

The Doctor collapsed where he lay, sobbing. Rassilon considered kicking him, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. "You are a liar and a hypocrite," He said calmly. "You chose this path as one of revenge. You locked us away for what you perceived as injustices against you and your morals. Then, overcome with guilt, you put yourself into exile. You roamed the galaxy, with those vile humans of yours. You were always looking for someone to take the fall for you. Our escape shall put the universe as it should be. Our wars were to bring justice. They were righteous."

Rassilon turned his attention to the Time Agent watching them. "And YOU!" he yelled, back in a fury. "Traitorous scum! You went against us all, and you know the price of treason. The Doctor shall be transported to court to answer for his crimes, and perhaps my jury shall be less merciful than they were." The President placed a small device beside the doctor, who was promptly teleported away. When the Doctor had gone, Rassilon turned back to Marcus Jakuvar. "You were but a hired mercenary. Sentencing you gives me no joy, in truth." He confessed solemnly. The pair began the walk to the time vortex. "Tell me, Jakuvar. What does your name mean?" The agent turned to his former employer. "In one of the human tongues, it means Jaguar, a fierce animal on earth."

Rassilon nodded. "One of that lot, eh? I suspected as much, I could tell by your face." The vortex was in sight. It was a powerful thing to behold, and the sheer energy being given off was uncontrolled. "Tell me, son of Boe. Is it true you can survive in the vortex without a ship?" Marcus nodded uncertainly. "It is said that I can, Lord President. You know the Jaguars as sons of Boe?"

"I know many things about them," The old man replied. "I'd sooner kill myself than face combat with one." They walked to the edge of the vortex. "I suppose I'll have to send you off."

Marcus nodded. "Indeed. But I'll find allies in the Jaguar clan and come back for the doctor."

Rassilon tutted. "That can't be helped, but I assure you that's a suicide mission. I'd leave it if I were you." He stared into the darkened void. "I now commit you to the Time Vortex, the most inhospitable place in all the known dimensions. Fall now, son of Boe. And if the forces of the universe are merciful in their judgement, may you rise again.

Marcus tilted himself forward into the vortex. He fell gracefully. As Rassilon watched him fall, he turned away. "Wretched Harkness Child," He scowled to himself.


	4. Chapter 4: Vortex and Captain

The time vortex is a foul and inhospitable place when you have a craft to move around it. Going in without a ship amounts to suicide. Marcus couldn't move, but that's what the vortex did. It froze you. He waited for his vortex manipulator to activate, waiting, waiting, waiting…

Waiting. It wouldn't activate like it was supposed to. The one body part Marcus could move was his eyes. He looked at wrist. "Error." Said the readout.

"Shit!" Marcus gasped in his mind. If it didn't activate, he would be at the mercy of the vortex. He would fall into a black hole, or worse, be left floating forever. It wasn't something he could take. He struggled desperately, trying to free himself from the temporary stasis field he was in, but it was no use. His arm would not move. "This is the end," he told himself. "I've been killed by a timelord. The one thing dad told me not to let happen, and it's happening to me right now. I bet it was Rassilon, double crossing bastard, he never even paid me. I should have known…" He tried to keep grumbling, but everything went blurry. That couldn't be right. The Stasis field is supposed to keep people conscious…..

"Kids these days, lying around."

Marcus knew the voice. Dear old dad. "Dad?" He said, amazed. "What happened?" The response was a chuckle. "That's Captain Dad to you!" Oh god. He was still his usual self. Marcus opened his eyes, shielding them from the light. Captain Jack Harkness stood over him, looking his usual resplendent self. Except now, he wore an air force officer's cap. Earthling, American, dated roughly 1968 AD. Captain Jack clearly hadn't lost his taste for identity fraud. "Still alive," Jack mused. "I wonder when you kids'll leave me in peace," He said, jokingly. "You know, parents complain about kids wearing baggy clothes, but you've managed to fit a whole dimension in your coat. Fashion these days eludes me." Marcus could clearly see why, that ancient trenchcoat was still wrapped around his father, clinging to him as it always had. Marcus got up out of the seat he was in.

"Where are we?" He asked? His Father grinned, and allowed Marcus to look out over his base from the balcony they were on. "Demon's Run," Jack proudly proclaimed as his son took in the sight of soldiers training, engineers fixing up the walls, and the general goings-on of a military installation. Marcus was shocked. He hadn't been present at the great battle, but he'd seen the footage. Everyone had. And it was all set out before his eyes. It was unbelievable. His dad began to explain.

"When Madame Kovarian was dealt with, the Silence was a mess. There were a few who still held on to the beliefs. Anglicans, mostly. They had no leader, and were the most wanted organization in the universe. Where most people would have seen a threat, I saw an opportunity. So I came here, rallied the troops. I rebuilt the Silence in my own name and image-"

Marcus cut him off with a chuckle. Jack looked quizzical. "What's so funny?" He asked. "Nothing," Marcus answered, almost laughing. "It's just, this is what you do, isn't it? You take these evil things and build them back up as you see fit. You did it with Torchwood, and you did it here. But this time, it's wrong. Evil. You can't claim it's for the Doctor anymore. Silence will fall when the question is asked. Is that really what you want?"

Jack was furious. "That's not how it is!" He yelled. "The silence now protects the doctor's identity! The oldest secret in the universe has to stay a secret, don't you understand? You've never met the Doctor anyway." Marcus looked his father in the eye. "Oh yes I have."

Marcus sat down with Jack in the captain's quarters and explained the situation. Jack listened intently. When Marcus had finished explaining, Jack stood up. "So that's the way it's got to be," He said. "But I won't just let this happen. The timelords are dangerous. We have to stop them. We have to get the Doctor back." He walked over to his locker and produced his revolver from it. It hadn't been used in a long time.

Marcus thought. "I understand we need the Doctor back, but how can he help us against an army of timelords?" He asked. Jack turned around, and Marcus saw the determination in his face.

"Simple. Kill 'em all."


End file.
